Samsung UE46C8000 3DTV Review

It was a big day for us at 3DTVReviewer… we finally got to don the 3D glasses and take a peek at Monsters Inc playing on the £2,200 UE46C8000 at the local Sevenoaks shop. The assistant was helpful, knowledgeable and friendly, so a big “thank you” to Sevenoaks.

As for the Samsung 3DTV, well, firstly, it was gorgeous in 2D. The pictures were clear, sharp and colourful with the LED screen working wonders. However, it was the 3D I was interested in, so on went the glasses.

My initial impressions were that the 3D effect was more subtle than I expected. It was more like looking into a box with depth perspective than having objects jump out at you. I imagine that the larger the TV set, the more noticable the 3D effect will be, so saving your pennies for the extra inches could really pay off.

I would’ve preferred to see Avatar on the screen, which I saw at the cinema, to give me some kind of mental comparision because the Monsters vs Aliens seemed to have had 3D imposed on it, rather than being included from the ground up, like Avatar was. In the short time I had viewing the 3D content, I imagined that the CGI animation was retooled for 3D by people saying, “she’s at the front, the house is in the middle, and the sky is at the back”… it was kind of depth-perspective with three or four different layers. I expect that making use of the “z axis” information which is already coded into games, will make for a much more impressive use of 3D. In fact, judging from the early comments, the 3D games appear likely to be the main beneficiary of the 3D technology with realism and immersion benefitting substantially.

So, in summary, my impressions of the 3D movie were good, 3D definitely adds to the movie-watching experience, but I still expect games to be the main driver of 3D adoption… that and the fact that I expect all TV’s to be “3D ready” in the future, so you’ll have the feature available whether you want to use it or not. If you’re not into games, it’s likely that 3D viewing will be a “special event” such as watching a 3D film as a family, or a 3D sporting event. I doubt people will grab their 3D glasses to watch Eastenders or Coronation Street.